Year: 2014

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American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA) officials on April 24 introduced a safety initiative they characterized as the association’s largest-ever undertaking.

To launch in January 2015, the initiative will help make the short line industry the safest industry in the world, ASLRRA officials said during the association’s 101st annual meeting held in San Diego late last week. In cooperation with the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), U.S. Department of Transportation’s Volpe National Transportation Systems Center and the University of Connecticut (UConn), ASLRRA plans to develop large libraries of training tools, technical materials and other educational resources to assist small railroads in instilling a good safety culture in their organization in addition to complying with all required safety regulations.

Read the complete story at Progressive Railroading.

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Picanco

Carl Picanco stares at the radio on a table across the aisle and when nothing happens, he checks his watch and then taps his iPhone and glances at his watch again.
He looks out a window. The brush and desert scrub stretch out in brown and green waves toward the foothills outside Vail in southeastern Arizona.
Read the complete story at the Arizona Republic.
Picanco is a member of SMART Transportation Division Local 84 at Los Angeles, Calif.

Right now, President Obama is meeting with key leaders in Asia to finalize the ‘Trans Pacific Partnership’ (TPP) in complete secrecy. Leaked documents show that this secretive plan will censor the Internet and strip away our rights.
We’re going to use a high powered spotlight to project a StopTheSecrecy message on key buildings in Washington D.C. to ensure Obama, the media, and everyone else knows TPP secrecy must be stopped. Visit www.stopthesecrecy.net to take action, today!

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oil-train-railNew rules on moving hazardous materials like crude oil on U.S. railroads could settle a dispute between the energy industry and rail companies that boils down to a fraction of an inch of steel in the frame of each tank car.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx wrote Thursday in a blog post that his agency would send its proposals to the White House for review next week. The proposal will include “options for enhancing tank car standards,” he said.

Read the complete story at Reuters.

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Simon

Long Island Rail Road unions left the meeting of Presidential Emergency Board 245 more united than ever in their quest for a fair contract.

The unions submitted a proposed contract that followed the recommendations of the PEB 244, which called for modest net annual increases of 2.5 percent.

The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority submitted an offer they claim was patterned after the tentative deal reached last week with TWU Local 100, but in reality, it fell far short, the union coalition reports.

The coalition is comprised of SMART Transportation Division General Committee of Adjustment GO 505, the National Conference of Firemen & Oilers SEIU 32BJ, the Transportation Communications Union and the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers.

“It is truly unfortunate that at this late stage, MTA would submit an offer that they know will guarantee a strike if it is selected,” said SMART General Chairperson Anthony Simon. “Their proposal would reduce real wages and effectively eliminate the pension plan for new hires. It is absolutely unacceptable.”

“The MTA is not telling the truth when it characterizes the unions’ position. We have never said that if we don’t get everything we want, there will be a strike. What we are saying loud and clear is that the MTA’s lowball offer, far below the real value of Transport Workers Union Local 100’s deal, will definitely provoke a strike if it was submitted to our membership for ratification.”

The MTA offer, though purportedly following the contours of Local 100’s agreement, actually omitted most of the value of that deal.

“If the MTA offer to us was submitted to the Local 100 membership, it would go down in flames,” Simon said.

The union coalition presented expert testimony showing that the agency could afford the unions’ proposal without raising fares. In fact, MTA Chairman Tom Prendergast testified that MTA was funding the Local 100 deal out of the same LIRR fund that the unions testified were available to the first board, but which MTA said they couldn’t use. It also tapped a fund for LIRR workers’ pensions.

The MTA proposal to PEB 245 omitted almost all of the benefit gains achieved by Local 100. In their place, MTA offered less than 75 percent of their actual value, according to Local 100 officials. MTA offered no evidence to support its valuations of their proposal.

On pensions, MTA proposed that LIRR workers pay more than 9 percent of their salary, where Local 100 members would pay on average 3.5 percent for a pension payment of substantially less value. New hire salaries would be slashed far beyond the modest changes in the tentative Local 100 deal.

“We are shocked that MTA would come before the PEB with a proposal so far below the fair recommendations of the first Presidential Emergency Board, as well as what they agreed to with Local 100 and the MTA police. Their proposal fails the test of reasonableness, and cannot be the basis of a voluntary settlement,” Simon said.

oil-train-railWASHINGTON – The Obama administration needs to take steps immediately to protect the public from potentially catastrophic oil train accidents even if it means using emergency authority, National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman said Wednesday.

The NTSB investigates accidents. The Transportation Department is drafting regulations to toughen standards for tank cars used to transport oil and ethanol, as well as other steps to prevent or mitigate accidents. But there isn’t time to wait for the cumbersome federal rulemaking process — which often takes many years to complete — to run its normal course, Hersman said.

Read the complete story at the Journal Star.

safe_imageNext week, the U.S. House of Representatives will consider H.R. 4486, the Military Construction-VA Appropriations Act. Amendments may be offered to this bill that seek to either weaken or repeal the Davis-Bacon Act, as well as to prohibit Project Labor Agreements for federal construction projects.
 
Click here for a detailed primer about Prevailing Wages and Project Labor Agreements.
 
Please contact your Representative and urge a vote against any amendment that seeks to weaken or repeal Davis-Bacon, or to prohibit PLAs.
 
 

caduceusThat little voice nagging you to put down the cake and lace up the running shoes is increasingly coming from your employer and is likely to grow louder with a looming change under the federal health care overhaul.

More companies are starting or expanding wellness programs that aim to reduce their medical costs by improving their employees’ health. They’re asking workers to take physical exams, complete detailed health assessments and focus on controlling conditions such as diabetes. Along with that, many companies also are dangling the threat of higher monthly insurance premiums to prod workers into action.

Read the complete story at the Associated Press.

OSHA logo; OSHAKANSAS CITY, Mo. – Union Pacific Railroad has been ordered to reinstate an injured employee and pay the worker more than $85,000 in damages following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA found that the company, based in Omaha, Neb., was in violation of the whistleblower provisions of the Federal Railroad Safety Act for terminating an employee following the reporting of a workplace injury that occurred at the company’s North Platte, Neb., terminal.

Union Pacific has been ordered to pay $10,000 in compensatory and $75,000 in punitive damages, as well as reasonable attorney’s fees. The company must also remove disciplinary information from the employee’s personnel record and provide whistleblower rights information to its employees. Back wages were not sought.

“An employer does not have the right to retaliate against employees who report work-related injuries and safety concerns,” said Marcia P. Drumm, OSHA’s acting regional administrator in Kansas City. “Whistleblower protections play an important role in keeping workplaces safe. Workers should never be forced to choose between safe work practices and keeping their job.”

OSHA’s investigation upheld the employee’s allegation that the railroad terminated his employment in retaliation for reporting an injury and for reporting that a company chair was allegedly defective. The employee suffered an injury to his back on Oct. 15, 2012, when the chair he was using collapsed. The employee reported his injury to his supervisor and submitted a personal injury report, noting that the condition of the chair contributed to his injuries.

After the employee reported his injuries, the railroad removed him from service and accused him of violating the company’s workplace violence policy and other work-related rules, and subsequently terminated the employee.

OSHA’s investigation, however, found that the railroad terminated the employee in retaliation for having engaged in protected conduct under the FRSA, and that the railroad had engaged in hostility toward the employee for reporting the injury.

Either party in these cases can file an appeal with the department’s Office of Administrative Law Judges.

OSHA enforces the whistleblower provisions of the FRSA and 21 other statutes protecting employees who report violations of various airline, commercial motor carrier, consumer product, environmental, financial reform, food safety, health care reform, nuclear, pipeline, worker safety, public transportation agency, maritime and securities laws.

Employers are prohibited from retaliating against employees who raise various protected concerns or provide protected information to the employer or to the government. Employees who believe that they have been retaliated against for engaging in protected conduct may file a complaint with the secretary of labor to request an investigation by OSHA’s Whistleblower Protection Program. Detailed information on employee whistleblower rights, including fact sheets, is available at http://www.whistleblowers.gov.

Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA’s role is to ensure these conditions for America’s working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more information, http://www.osha.gov.

BNSF_Color_LogoIn an effort to help secure unattended controlling locomotives of all trains against unauthorized entry, BNSF Railway has adopted a D575-style locking mechanism as a standard for new locomotives and is retrofitting existing locomotives with this design, the company announced April 23.

In conjunction, air brake and train handling (ABTH) rules are being revised to add a new rule that addresses the practice of locking controlling locomotive cabs with the D575 lock and the distribution of corresponding keys.

Click here to review the locking controlling locomotive cabs briefing.